Newsletter

Savannah City Council wants details on LNG trucking plan

Carl Elmore

Savannah's City Council is asking its attorney to determine whether the city has legal grounds to fight a proposal that calls for transporting up to 58 tanker trucks of liquefied natural gas along DeRenne Avenue.

Mayor Otis Johnson on Thursday also got consensus to write Southern LNG to express displeasure with neither council nor any city staff being presented with the proposal before it went before the public. Southern LNG held an open house about the plan Monday.

"I don't think any company has a right to truck hazardous material through this city without having a discussion with this council and staff about the dangers and liability of that proposal," Johnson said. "... This is a very crucial issue that involves the safety of our citizens."

The LNG hauled in the trucks isn't flammable as a liquid, but if it escaped and vaporized, it could ignite.

City officials also will ask for a workshop session with the company so they can review the proposal and ask about alternatives.

Bruce Hughes is president of Southeast LNG, the trucking firm that would handle the transport of the liquefied natural gas from the Southern LNG terminal off President Street Extension. The open house, Hughes said, was the company's primary means of reaching out to city and county officials.

"We're ready, willing and able to meet with the mayor's staff or city council in any form they like to solicit additional information," he added.

Southeast's operation would add 10 trucks a day when the facility opens in 2012, Hughes said, and would ramp up to 58 a day over the ensuing decade.

Johnson's concerns echoed those of several residents along DeRenne - including members of Project DeRenne, an advisory committee that has worked for more than two years to develop a transportation plan to ease traffic congestion, improve the business corridor and increase pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

Alderman Jeff Felser shared Johnson's concerns about the DeRenne route, saying "that's ambulance row," a reference to the regional emergency traffic that heads to St. Joseph's/Candler and Memorial hospitals.

Johnson indicated that even if a legal opinion determined the city had no standing in fighting the proposal, he would make his objections known.

"If I'm going to be exploited or taken advantage of, I'm going to struggle against it," he said. "And I may not win, but I'm going to struggle. This, for me, is one of those principal moments."